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MONEY GROWING ON TREES?
Published On 01-03-2009 , 9:03 PM
The one resolution I hope parents have made for this New Year is to make sure their children come to understand the changes in the household economy.
Go ahead and correct me with the phrase that's already been tossed my way dozens of times: "They're just kids and shouldn't have to carry the burdens of an adult world."
There's some sense to this, not involving the children concept. But with the dollars and cents dwindling in the budget on an almost daily basis, the need for family discussion becomes a paramount ingredient for making it through our country's economic downturn.
The worn-out phrase "Money doesn't grow on trees" needs to be resurrected because too many of us have led our children to believe that's just where it comes from, but in the form of a plastic card.
Of course, this household discussion has to be age-appropriate. Also, it can't just be a conversation, as there needs to be an adequate action plan put into place with the talking-time acting only as the kick-off point.
Why not call this "the truth in living policy," which, come to think of it, would serve us all well if it were the mantra that governed our existence.
Is it pride that keeps parents from wanting the kids to know the family breadwinner is no longer employed?
What is it that makes the single mom who has kids eligible for the school free lunch program determine she doesn't want them "labeled"?
The first step that could be takenin helping our offspring recognize the changes in the household economy could be that long overdue curtailment of the waste we allow them to engage in; throwing food away, letting the shower water run too long, leaving the lights on when no one is using them - you know the routine.
Back when I was a kid, this kind of lecture delivered by my mother fell pretty much on deaf ears, as I had no understanding of the starving children in Europe that she continually talked about when I refused to eat the crust on my breakfast toast.
But I did have a clear understanding of difficult times when the soles of my shoes had a hole in them and the repair job was cutting a piece of cardboard and fitting it into the shoe.
I was never sure if it was lack of money, no ration stamps or both of these problems that prevented the purchase of a new pair of "stomps," but I did know that the cardboard was the designated solution.
Should my parents have been embarrassed because it was necessary to introduce me to the economic realities of the time?
In an interview with local philanthropist Adelaide Hixon when she was a guest on "Talk About Parenting with Shirlee Smith," I asked her about growing up in a family where money wasn't an issue - how or if the children were ever told they couldn't have something. She answered by saying her father simply said they weren't going to spend their money that way.
As parents and caregivers of minors, it could do us a heap of good to take a good listen to Adelaide's words from her father. For one thing, it isn't every day we get a peek at life on the other side of the tracks.
Another thing for those among us who are hesitant with just the thought of a conversation about money, or lack of it, spending, budgeting and wastefulness, knowing the well-to-do don't let their young'uns believe money sprouts from trees and plastic should make the discussion just a little bit easier to handle.
This blog can be found in our columns section where you can print a copy or e-mail to someone
http://talkaboutparenting.org/pages/articles.php
 Tune-in Wednesdays Noon to 1:00 p.m. Talk Abut Parenting with Shirlee Smith LIVE Call-in at 626- 794-2116 or 794-2551. PCAC Charter Channel 56 in Pasadena. Return to our home page and click the red television for streaming. See our calendar listing for further details
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Comment
| | 1. | Shirlee,
I've gotta agree with you about the need for "re-educating" our kids as to the realities of the situation, of tight times and all. Strange thing, with us, it wasn't that necessary. Both with my growing up, in a "poor" family, and my kids growing up in a fairly affluent family.
When we were growing up we didn't know we were "poor". But we sure knew we were NOT "rich folk". See, "rich folk" could afford to waste stuff-WE couldn't. "Rich folk" could afford fancy new clothes, WE couldn't.
When my sister and I would sometimes be taken over to the "rich folk's" home and wait while our mother "cleaned up", we learned through seeing, and doing, how it was to be on our hands and knees, scrubbing the kitchen and bathroom floors. "Participatory Learning", one might call it.
Also, I had this "paper route", at a fairly early age. Getting up early in the morning, going out in the cold, and sometimes damp and rainey weather, taught me a lot about responsibility, and about working in adverse conditions.
Later, as I got older, when I would go on the construction site where my dad had moved up to a plasterer's job, and wield the shovel and hoe he used to dig the ditches with, and stir the cement and water to mix it-"Participatory Learning". As I got older, I would carry the hod of concrete up ladders, to the plasterers, to earn a little extra money. I think that, may have been the one thing that CONVINCED me to be a CPA, and use my brains instead of my brawn.
It was not at all hard for us to see that money did NOT grow on trees. We had this "Participatory Learning" thing...
Having seen and learned how hard it was to make money, we had no problem relating to not wasting it.
Hank
- by Hank Wilfong, 01-04-2009, 9:10 AM
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